It was announced today that Gerard Houllier will meet with the FFF to discuss the job offer from Aston Villa. It is highly expected that the Frenchman will step down from his post as Technical Director of the French national team. Reports suggest that the 63 year old has been offered a two year contract at the club and in a managerial role.
The former Liverpool boss is set to meet with French Football Federation president Fernando Dechaussoy on Wednesday to discuss the situation. Houllier was away watching the French national side defeat Bosnia 2-0 and will now fly back to France to declare his decision to Dechaussoy.
Rumour circulated this week that the Villa board had created a Director of Football role ready for Houllier to join the club with MacDonald remaining as a head coach. It is now thought that Houllier, who has been out of management since leaving Lyon in 2007, would prefer a more traditional manager’s position at the club. In this case it remains to be seen what Kevin MacDonald’s future holds at the club.
Lerner was speculated to have encouraged a new hierarchical set up at the club to accommodate the Scotsman as well as to emulate the sort of structure that is in place at the Cleveland Brown’s, Lerner’s NFL interest. It was believed that MacDonald would relish the idea of the limelight being given to Houllier with the opportunity to work on a head coach basis. It is clear that the board still want Kevin to stay at the club and he could well have a large role to play in the coming seasons.
I think that all Villa fans would hate to see MacDonald leave the club and hold little fear that this will occur. What is uncertain is whether he will continue as a first team coach or go back to managing the reserve side, currently run by Gordon Cowans, with whom he had great success. A decision that should please most Villan’s will ensure that if Houllier were to take the job, he would not be joined by Phil Thompson. This suggestion caused many a Villa fans eyebrow to rise as the Frenchman’s former right hand man at Liverpool has not always been the biggest supporter of the club.
Several Villa players were on international duty and there was good news all round in the most part. Marc Albrighton made a magnificent substitute’s appearance for the England U21’s netting the second in a 3-0 victory. The win saw the team progress and finish 2nd in their group and the winger was in great form with some dazzling runs and wicked crosses. Nathan Delfouneso was an unused substitute in the tie. Fellow youngster Barry Bannan also scored as Scotland U21’s won their group with a 2-1 win over Austria. Richard Dunne also played as the Republic of Ireland claimed their second win in as many games with a 3-1 victory over Andorra. John Carew started for Norway but had to be replaced after just 38 minutes in slightly more worrying news and I’ll report more on this story as and when it comes.
UTV
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